Two gaunt 3-storey buildings built by Christy(1820) still exist in Park Lane, where scores of villagers were employed in large scale hat-making under the Factory System utilising technical skills and experience of hatters from a cottage industry that already existed here. By 1834 over 120 people were employed producing 1300 hats each week, so we became market-leaders. This factory closed effectively in 1866 when there occurred a concentration of the industry in Stockport, partly due to labour disputes and the increase in production offered by more modern machinery.

The upper factory floors were partitioned into cubicles each illuminated by a tiny closed window and with a gangway down the middle. The initial process of hat-making was joining together wool and rabbit fur using warmth, moisture and friction. The cleaned fur and wool were laid on a bench then vibrated with an instrument similar to an archer’s bow. The hatter vibrated the catgut cord onto the raw materials causing fibres to fly into the air then fall like snowflakes at the far end of the bench to create pieces of fabric known as batts. One can imagine the effect of flying fibres on the lungs of workers confined in these unventilated cubicles.

Pieces of shaped mahogany wood, covered one end with lead, were arranged in a circle sloping down to a cauldron of hot water acidified with sulphuric. The fabric batts were dipped in hot fluid then laid on the planks to be rolled, twisted, pressed and rubbed with a piece of leather tied to the workman’s hand. It was rolled out with a rolling pin and examined so that imperfections could be wetted, before additional fibres were worked in. Two batts would be joined around a mould to create a hat.

The factory system evolved through a series of stages from the fifteenth century.

1. A man buys his materials to create a product that he sells for the best price he can get.

2. A man buys raw materials from a merchant to create a product, then the merchant pays him for each article – this is piece-work.

3. One man organises the work of many others, providing materials for them to create articles then paying them for the number produced. This domestic system most likely existed for hatting in Frampton Cotterell prior to Christy’s works.

4. In the factory system introduced here by Christy, the employer paid people a wage for their labour. They worked set hours and at no stage were the articles theirs to sell. The combination of machinery, people, use of money earned by people’s work, all in a large organisation owned by one man or a group of men is called capitalism, with profits going to the factory owner.

Luke Fowler who was manager of the Hat Factory, found men became dissatisfied with working conditions and unwilling to do certain tasks, also quality of some goods was sub-standard. There was trouble between men and management, with no established process of conciliation. The men came out on strike in 1834 and after this was settled not everybody got their jobs back. The work force was down to 80 by 1840 then further reduced in 1845. When Christy introduced new machinery to speed-up the work of fur cutting in 1864 there was another strike so production ceased in 1866.